The best seafood in Hebei (apparently).

Today, being the big eater that I am, I have set off to eat at what is widely known in the area as the number one seafood restaurant in Hebei. Here, the locals will line up for many hours just to have the privilege of dining at this restaurant, actually this is quite rare in Hebei, because food is one of our primary industries here. The food service industry is varied and people generally have a lot of choice. There is little reason to wait for hours and hours just for one place when there are plenty of substitutes elsewhere.

Still, as people have noted with "chinese whispers", word gets around quickly when something has consensus as being very good and suddenly the whole of town knows about it. It's not a place you visit for the classy or high end atmosphere, it is a grubby place with people everywhere. Lots of banter and noise, but smiles and looks of satisfaction all round.

In China, Oysters are eaten cooked and not raw. This is different from the typical way the people from countries outside Asia would eat oysters. This would be attributed to the kinds of waters the oysters are cultivated and farmed in and therefore their suitability to being eaten raw.

Some soy sauce with ginger is usually how people eat it here.

Various kinds of shell fish are cooked here, and usually still on their shell. Another distinction between Chinese cuisine and western is the tendency to leave the shell on in the stir fry. A lot of the accompanying herbs, dressings and sauces are mostly on the shell. People eat these and spit out what is not edible.

Razor clams are also very popular here. The gravy kind of sauce has soaked up a lot of the sea taste of the clams. Again, they are served on shell.

Scallops are usually cooked in a similar way to Oysters, with garlic and some vermicelli. The shell in this case is used not for taste but to hold all the ingredients together.

Perhaps the most famous in this restaurant, are the Pipixia. These are known as Mantis shrimp. There are two forms of this shrimp, one which is the smasher, and the other is a grab and slicer. The smasher has two very potent hammers which it uses to hit it's targets at the speed of a bullet. It's very lethal. The slicer is more like a mantis true to it's name, and this is also the kind that we like to eat. Unlike shrimp, it's body is extremely tough, but the meat is very juicy and succulent. It's just very hard to get into.

It's kind of scary eating Pipixia, especially giving how vicious they are when they're alive. I wonder how they far these.